On UNIX-like operating systems, you can create a database or dbspace on a raw device or a file system file.
Disk partitions are typically accessed in two modes: file system mode (for example through the UFS file system) or raw mode. Raw mode does unbuffered I/O, generally making a data transfer to or from the device with every read or write system call. UFS is the default UNIX file system, and is a buffered I/O system which collects data in a buffer until it can transfer an entire buffer at a time.
You create a database or dbspace on a raw device or a file system file. SAP Sybase IQ determines automatically from the path name you specify whether it is a raw partition or a file system file. Raw partitions can be any size.